Indiana University has criticized the Trump administration’s decision to bar international students from staying in the U.S. if they take classes entirely online this fall — even if an outbreak of the coronavirus forces campuses to shut down.
On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued new guidelines for international students with F-1 and M-1 visas that would force them to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if their schools operate entirely online this fall. New visas will not be issued to students at those schools, and others at universities offering a mix of online and in-person classes will be barred from taking all of their classes online.
If international students don’t comply with the new ICE directive, “they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings,” according to the guidelines.
The move provides additional pressure for universities to reopen even amid growing concerns about the recent spread of COVID-19 among young adults and could potentially have a significant impact on international students at each of Indiana University’s campuses, including IUPUC in Columbus.
Currently, it is unclear how many IUPUC students would be affected, university officials said. Most international students in the IU system take classes at the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses.
“It is unconscionable to inflict this level of uncertainty on those who have invested their time and trust in U.S. educational institutions, as it would be to force our international students to leave their homes, their classmates and their academic communities because of a university’s decision made in the interest of public health and safety,” said Hannah Buxbaum, vice president for international affairs at Indiana University, said in a statement Wednesday. “It is particularly unconscionable considering that ongoing travel restrictions and the continued suspension of routine visa issuance for students make a return to the United States far from guaranteed, jeopardizing students’ academic degrees should their institutions return to normal operations.”
The guidelines have provoked backlash from universities across the U.S. who say international students have an important place in their communities, according to The Associated Press. Some schools had already announced that they would only hold online classes this fall.
Indiana University currently plans to have “a blend of in-person and online instruction” in the fall.
On Wednesday, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a lawsuit in Boston’s federal court, seeking to prevent federal immigration authorities from enforcing the rule, according to wire reports.
The universities contend that the directive violates the Administrative Procedures Act because officials failed to offer a reasonable basis justifying the policy and because the public was not given notice to comment on it.
“The order came down without notice — its cruelty surpassed only by its recklessness. It appears that it was designed purposefully to place pressure on colleges and universities to open their on-campus classrooms for in-person instruction this fall, without regard to concerns for the health and safety of students, instructors, and others,” Harvard President Larry Bacow said in a statement Wednesday.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that schools and colleges return to in-person instruction as soon as possible even as coronavirus cases rise large swaths of the country, telling reporters on Tuesday that “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”
Soon after the guidance from ICE was released on Monday, Trump took to Twitter to lash out at Democrats, whom he has accused — without evidence — of wanting to keep schools closed “for political reasons, not for health reasons.”
On Wednesday, Trump threatened to “cut off funding” to schools that don’t reopen and criticized guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control for opening schools, calling the CDC’s guidance “very tough & expensive” and “impractical,” in a series of tweets Wednesday.
Trump did not immediately say what funding he would cut off or under what authority, according to wire reports.
A couple hours after Trump’s tweets, U.S. Vice President and Columbus native Mike Pence said the CDC will be issuing new guidance for the reopening of schools in the fall, according to wire reports.
The CDC had previously issued a nine-page guide to help school administrators determine their schools’ readiness to reopen campuses, daily and weekly readiness assessments and what policies and procedures should be put in place if a student or staff member gets sick. The guide encourages educators to work with state and local health officials to “help protect students, staff and communities, and slow the spread of COVID-19,” according to the CDC’s guide.
The CDC is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services led by Assistant Secretary for Health Alex Azar, who was nominated by Trump to lead the department in 2017 and confirmed by the Republican-led Senate in 2018.
